personal ministry, and the stoning of Stephen: allowing three years and an half to the duration of that ministry, and another three years and an half to the remaining interval, after which the apostles ceased to preach exclusively to the Jews, and began to preach to the rest of the world. The beginning of our Lord's ministry the same writer dates in the fifteenth of Tiberius, U. C. 782; and therefore its close in the eighteenth or nineteenth, U.C. 785 or 786: and he specifies his own age, immediately afterwards, as 440 years later, about U. C. 1226, A. D. 473*. CYRILL OF JERUSALEM—Ἐν γαστρὶ μὲν παρθένου γέγονεν ὁ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐννεαμηνιαῖος (ὁ) χρόνος· ἀνὴρ δὲ γέγονεν ὁ Κύριος τριάκοντα καὶ τρία ἔτη. Catechesis xii. 14. ad finem. Cyrill, whose age, as we have seen, is about A. D. 340, thus estimates the length of our Lord's ministry at three years: for in another passage he supposes him to have been baptized at thirty d. If the Historia Ecclesiastica et Mystagogica, ascribed to him, be really his, or represent his opinions rightly, he there places the Nativity A. M. 5500 e. JULIANUS IMPERATOR-Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς, ἀναπείσας τὸ χείριστον τῶν παρ ̓ ὑμῖν, ὀλίγους πρὸς τοῖς τριακοσίοις * It is singular that Eusebius should maintain the whole duration of our Lord's ministry to have been three years and an half, yet tell us, that the three first Gospels contained only the particulars of one year; viz. that between the Baptism and the Passion; and the fourth Gospel only the particulars which d Catechesis vi. 11. p. 90. l. 12. preceded the Baptism. See E. H. iii. 24.95.C.&c. This interval of three years and an half between the Baptism and the Ascension, is recognised and assumed by Arethas, in Rev. xx. 7. apud Ecumenium, ii. 816. A. in one of the explanations of the Thousand years, there proposed. e Caput 18. p. 330. ἐνιαυτοῖς ὀνομάζεται, ἐργασάμενος παρ ̓ ὃν ἔζη χρόνον ἔργον οὐδὲν ἀκοῆς ἄξιον, εἰ μή τις οἴεται τοὺς κυλλοὺς καὶ τυφλοὺς ἰάσασθαι, καὶ δαιμονῶντας ἐφορκίζειν, ἐν Βηθσαϊδᾷ καὶ ἐν Βηθανίᾳ ταῖς κώμαις, τῶν μεγίστων ἔργων εἶναι. Julianus Imperator, apud Cyrillum, lib. vi. 191. D. E. If it be true, as Jerome informs us, that this work of Julian's was written in expeditione Persica, its date was A. D. 362 or 363. EPIPHANIUS-Epiphanius' date for the Nativity is viii Ides of January, (January 6,) in the forty-second of Augustus, U. C. 752, and in the thirty-third of Herod for the visit of the Magi, and the flight into Egypt, it is two years later, in the thirty-fifth of Herod for the Baptism, it is vi Ides of November, (November 8,) U.C. 781: for the Passion, it is xiii Kalends of April, March 20, U. C. 784: the age of our Lord at his Baptism, he supposes to be twentynine years and ten months exactly: his age at the Passion, thirty-two years and seventy-four days: and the precise length of his ministry, from his Baptism, November 8, U. C. 781, to his death, March 20, U. C. 784, to be two years, one hundred and thirty-four days. These things are so often asserted by him that it would be endless to refer to particular passages. Vide however, i. 432. A. Alogi, x-450. xxix: ii. 135. Anacephalæosis, cxxiii: 169. B. De Mensuris et Ponderibus, xii. The mistake of Epiphanius in placing the birth of Christ in the thirty-third of Herod, four years before the death of that king, might possibly arise from his confounding together the two lengths of his reign, thirty-four years, and thirty-seven. Our Saviour, I believe, was actually born in the thirty-third of Herod, as dated from U. C. 717-one year before his death *. * It appears from Arethas, in Rev. xii. 14. apud Ecumenium, Another singular mistake of his, is, that though he certainly places the Passion U. C. 784, he places it Coss. Vinicio et Longino: and these were consuls U. C. 783. The true date of the Passion, I believe, to be this very consulate. Epiphanius, however, by a remarkable oversight, distinguishes the consulate of the two Gemini from that of Rufus and Rubellius, or rather Fusius and Rubellius, who were in reality the same persons. Hence, though he has made no mistake in his supposed year of the Passion, he has assigned it to the consuls of the year preceding. The Ancoratus, we may observe, is quoted in the work Adversus Hæreses: 751. D. Ariani, xxvii: and 887. D. Pneumatomachi, ii. Otherwise they were written very near to each other, the date of the former being Æræ Diocletianæ 90, and that of the latter Æræ Diocletianæ 92. Vide ii. 1. B: 64. A. lx: 123. B. cxxi: and i. 2. C. D. caput ii: Epistola ad Epiphanium: 404. A. Cataphrygastæ, ii: 638. A. Manichæi, xx. PRUDENTIUS-Quid est quod artum circulum Heu quam fugacem gratiam Quam pæne subductam facem Sensim recisa exstinxerat! Cælum nitescit lætius, ii. 757. B. C. that such commentators, as understood the woman travailing with child, in the Revelation, of the mother of our Lord, explained the three years and an half of her sojourn in the desert, after the birth of the child, of our Lord's, and the rest of the Holy Family's sojourn in Egypt for the last three 188. See Scandit gradatim denuo Prudentius f, Cathemerinon xi. 1: Hymnus ad viii. Kal. Natalis Domini, as Prudentius was born A. D. 348, and published these poems at fifty-seven: A.D. 404. The Apostolical Constitutions, v. 13, fix the Nativity to the 25th of the ninth month, and the Epiphany to the 6th of the tenth. Augustin: Deinde natus est Christus cum jam inciperent crescere dies: natus est Johannes quando cœperunt minui dies; that is, on Dec. 25 and June 24, respectively. The latter writer considered our Lord's ministry to have lasted only one year; which follows both from his placing the Passion Coss. Geminis, and from this passage in his Epistles h: A nativitate autem Domini hodie computantur anni ferme quadringenti viginti, a resurrectione autem vel adscensione ejus anni plus minus cccxc. This places the Ascension thirty years after the Nativity; and no more. Εκατοστῇ ἐννενηκοστῇ τετάρτῃ Ὀλυμπιάδι, Ῥωμαίων Αὐγούστου Καίσαρος βασιλεύοντος, γεγέννηται κατὰ σάρκα ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός. Cyrillus contra Julianum, lib. i. 14. A. Olympiad 194 answers to B. C. 4—A. D. 1. U. C. 750-U.C. 754, and which of these years is meant must be doubtful. The ToλTela of Metrophanes and Alexander, apud Photium, Bibliotheca, Codex 256. p. 469. l. 17, places the persecution of Diocletian in the nineteenth of his reign, and anno Christi 305. This supposes the Na f Operum i. 79. g Operum iii. Pars iia. 402. B. in Johannem Tractatus xiv. 5. Cf. v. 1152. E. Sermo 287. 4. h Operum ii. 748. E. F. Epistolæ, 199. 20. Cf. iii. 36. B. De Doctrina Christiana, ii. 42. tivity to be two years before the vulgar era; viz. U.C. 752, or B. C. 2. Τὸ δέ γε ἡμέτερον γένος, τὸ τῶν Χριστιανῶν λέγω, πρὸ τετρακοσίων μὲν ἐτῶν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔσχεν—Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, kaтà eiμapuévns, apud Photii Bibliothecam, Codex 223. p. 218. 1. 23. Cassiodorus in Chronicis places the birth of Christ Augusti xli. Coss. Lentulo et Messala; both which dates, as he reckons the reign of Augustus at 56 years, coincide with U. C. 751. The Martyrium Pauli Apostoli, prefixed to Ecumenius in Novum Testamentum, dates his martyrdom, at Rome, Ti Népwvos, on the fifth of the Syro-Macedonian Panemus, or Egyptian Epiphi, and the 29th of the Roman June, in the thirty-sixth year Toû σwrnpíoν τáθους, and the sixty-ninth year τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσίας: three hundred and thirty years before the date of the Martyrium itself, which is specified as the fourth consulate of Arcadius, and the third of Honorius, in the ninth year of the Roman Indiction. According to the Fasti, the consulate in question was A.D. 396: and A. D. 396 was also the ninth year current of the Roman Indiction. On this principle, St. Paul's martyrdom must be dated, A.D. 396 minus 330, that is, A. D. 66, U.C. 819: our Saviour's Passion, A. D. 66 minus 36, A. D. 30. U. C. 783: and our Saviour's birth, U. C. 819 minus 69, U. C. 750, B. C. 4: dates, which, from whatever quarter obtained, yet according to the conclusions which we have laboured to establish in other parts of the present work, must be admitted to be remarkably correct. It is proper, however, to observe, that the Paschal Chronicon, i. 566, has a remark on the year of the same consulate, which makes 335 years complete from |